RUS Industries, Inc.

RUS Industries of Niagara Falls, NY – a small manufacturer of precision machined components for the industrial and telecom sectors – has “great customers, great machines and great people,” in the words of Manufacturing General Manager Erik Carlson. After 40 years of serving industries across the country, it was time to raise the company’s stature by fully complying with the ISO 9001:2008 Standard. Carlson and his management team see the development and implementation of a formal quality management system (QMS) as the avenue to an expanded customer base. Specifically, they aspire to reach a clientele that requires potential vendors possess ISO certification before even entering discussions. But more importantly, RUS shuns a “once and done” attitude and values ISO and its tools as a continual approach for improving everyday operations. UB TCIE emerged as the chosen partner because of its enthusiasm and customized solutions, versus a list of ISO providers proposing uninspired, cookie-cutter services.

The Approach

Engaged and trained five company managers in ISO 9001:2008, which included:

Assessing system and process gaps that prohibit ISO compliance

Ascertaining RUS’s core business processes before mapping them to identify opportunities for improvement, as defined by ISO standards

Writing a manual detailing the QMS and educating employees about the new system

Adjusting the QMS, post implementation

Conducting an internal audit to detect areas needing further attention

Introduced all employees to the ISO 9001:2008 Standard

The Impact

Received an ISO Certificate of Registration and praise from the third-party certifying auditor for obtaining zero non-comformances as a first-time applicant

Developed a more accurate business view by instilling metrics to track the costs of poor quality and goods sold, on-time delivery and safety, all leading to better decision making

Reduced cost of rework and scrapped products by 35 percent, year over year

Increased all employees’ sense of ownership by providing greater awareness of company operations

Project ROI

How do we measure the impact of projects? It’s a mix of tangible, quantifiable savings with the more elusive “soft savings” – such as cost avoidance and improved customer satisfaction.